Primary ground combat vehicles of the Frontier War (2371-2381)

[u/Zharan_Colonel]

Historical Notes

Rushed into full-scale development in 2327 following the fall of Callisto to the Draconists, the M7 entered service in 2334 and served throughout the latter years of the Jovian War (2324-2341) and the First Titan War (2334-2342). The updated M7A1 came about in 2343 and served during the rest of the Draconist Wars, with the newer M7A2 following in 2368 and serving throughout the Frontier War (2371-2381). It saw considerable action during that war, and racked up an impressive kill-to-death record against ground vehicles of the Alliance Armada.

The Alliance of Free Worlds’ Comissão de Armamentos Militares rolled out the CV-48 in 2348, dubbing it the Boiuna after a mythical dark serpent from ancient Brazilian folklore. The CV-48 carries the fearsome 3M62 linear accelerator cannon, which can fire a 152 millimeter projectile at a velocity up to 4 kilometers per second and defeat most armor fielded by the IDC in a direct shot. This primary armament allowed CV-48s like the captured example shown above to wreak havoc in pitched battles during the brutal ground combat of the Frontier War.

When the Zharan Ministry of Armaments entered full-scale production of ground combat vehicles in the late 2360s, one of the first projects they initiated was the development of a main battle tank for the Zharan Liberation Army Ground Forces. In 2377 they adopted the ZT-77, which married a 90 millimeter linear accelerator cannon with a 40 millimeter autocannon and enough maneuverability to make them formidable threats to anything which came within range. As such, ZT-77s were greatly feared by crews of M7A1s and other Coalition vehicles.

These three distinctive vehicles share one major detail in common, and that is that they are all designed as hover tanks. The reason for this is simple – given that most ground combat in the 24th century occurred on Titan, where environmental conditions favored flight more so than terrestrial navigation, having ground vehicles levitate off the ground enables greater agility, and therefore greater overall survivability. Each faction devised different methods of accomplishing hovercraft travel, but the overall effect was similar across the board.

About the Setting

The Spacers Saga: Frontier Wars is a futuristic military science fiction setting which diverged from our timeline when an asteroid slammed into Phoenix, AZ, in May 2014. Fifteen years after this tragedy, the industrialist Charles Larsen ushered in the Age of Fusion, opening up deep space to crewed exploration and eventual human settlement — and all of the strife that we bring with us. The next 300+ years were marked by progress and peril in equal measure, and by 2300 much of the solar system had been charted by intrepid human pioneers.

The story focuses on the rivalry between the Mars-led Coalition for Mutual Security (aka the Coalition) and the Alliance of Free Worlds (aka the Alliance), a federation of rebel worlds in the outer solar system. These two superpowers fought a brutal war from 2371 to 2381 (the Frontier War), which ended when the Zharan Collective (a union of artificial humans which rose up against their creators in 2356) entered the war on the side of the Alliance in 2379. The story opens 10 years later with the superpowers locked in a frigid ideological cold war.

The plot kicks off when the Alliance launches a massive attack against the Coalition, igniting the Second Frontier War. This conflict quickly engulfs the entire solar system and draws in participants from all backgrounds, including three college students from Mars whose adventures will become tied up with the fate of all humanity…

Creator's Note

For clarity's sake, I (u/Zharan_Colonel) I drew these vehicles with inspiration from existing pieces of art. The M7 was heavily inspired by the work of Tom Alfaro from his "Pan Spatial" sci-fi worldbuilding project; the CV-48 is inspired by a concept from Dot Matrix's KIL.A.TON turn-based tank fighting game; and the ZT-77 is inspired by a mix of vehicles, including the HT-95 Levkov from Battlefield 4 and the Colonial Marine tanks from the Alien universe.

[u/The_Last_Fluorican]

[u/Zharan_Colonel → u/The_Last_Fluorican]

Grazie, amici 😁

[u/One-Let3558]

HOVVERING TANKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[u/Zharan_Colonel → u/One-Let3558]

Indeed 😉

[u/ryohhan]

I love military, just like ur post

[u/gameronice]

If you have a chance, look up Hammer's slammers.

[u/Lonely_Fix_9605]

Beautiful art. I love the realistic design, the low profile, the sloped armor, definitely one of the best fantasy combat vehicles I've ever seen.

One thing worth considering is what does the hovering actually do to benefit these vehicles? Treads are presumably cheaper and easier to build and maintain than anti-grav tech, so why build one flying tank when you can build 2-3 normal tanks? Is the terrain they're fighting on unable to support a standard armored vehicle? Do these provide protection against mines or anti-tank barriers? Do they need to remain off the ground for some other reason?

Keep up the great work!

[u/PeterMilley]

Does the armor on these tanks stand up to the weapons on these tanks?

[u/Zharan_Colonel → u/PeterMilley]

The short answer is, "Yes" but with a big asterisk on it. The real answer is, "At least as much as modern tank armor stands up to shots from other modern tanks," which is of course a very loaded topic in and of itself

[u/UntakenUntakenUser]

Thought this was Cursed Tank simulator because of the first one’s turret

[u/Ghostofman]

My thoughts:

• gunner/loader doesn't work well unless you're using the term loader oddly. Assuming the main gun fires ammo with comparable physical traits to modern 120mm, those things are heavy, and require some coordination to operate the breach and blast door while hefting the shell. Would make more sense to either have a dedicated loader, or use an automatic loading system. There's pluses and minuses to both, though a future autoloader might fix some of the issues they currently have.

• hovertanks are cool, but that's also a lot of weight to get airborne. It's sci-fi, so rule of cool should win, but if you want to get crunchy you can talk about things like space magic armor that's lighter, or make antigravity sufficiently advanced and omnipresent that tanks are perfectly reasonable. Though I would depict them as typically hovering as close to the ground as possible but being able to pop up a few feet. That would allow for some tactical advantage when talking hull down and use of terrain.

An alternative would be to lighten the armor and offset it with an active protection system of some kind. Though a real world proposed vehicle like that was called a "Mounted Fighting Vehicle" or something like that to make sure they weren't confused with the heavier actual tanks. So armor was comparable to an IFV, but it had mini missile interceptors to protect against missiles and rockets. Based on the larger project it was part if I assume the theory was it would rarely fight actual tanks.

[u/szerszer]

How does the linear accelerator cannon works? ZT-77 cannon seems a little too small compared to other nations armaments.

[u/Ghostofman → u/szerszer]

I got thinking about that too. Linear accelerators, using the current terminology, would be a directed energy/radiological weapon, not a physical projectial.

[u/PickMaleficent4096]

Hover tanks in low gravity/thick atmosphere is a good niche for them, though this would also probably open up a niche for *really heavy* tracked tanks and a lot of lighter fliers e.g. modern drones. Titan notable because its atmosphere is soup so the laser defenses that would counter small craft don't work very well. It's also a pretty ideal location for an airship for the same reasons the tanks work.

[u/Zharan_Colonel → u/PickMaleficent4096]

Yes! I love all of this 😄

I have a concept in my setting's lore called a "ground crawler," which is sort of to cars what the ornithopter from Dune is to planes. I also have used aircraft of various types, pretty much all of them relying on rotors or props as opposed to jets, because of the atmospheric conditions on Titan